I watched as Seth’s face turned from alabaster to pink to scarlet to nearly purple. “You bastard,” he whispered. “How dare you speak that way to me?”
“How dare you speak such ill things of my wife?” Jasper asked evenly.
“You only care so much for the cunt because you have no other choice! Admit it, you wouldn’t have looked twice at her if you hadn’t imprinted. You’re nothing more than a pompous, dastardly fucker. I should have killed you when I had the chance!”
Benedict banged his gavel loudly, interrupting Seth’s tirade. I was thankful for his intervention. I was almost in tears. “Do I need to remind you there are ladies present? This is absolutely unacceptable.”
“I’ll tell you what’s unacceptable!” Seth growled. “That you decrepit old curs think you can hide behind your robes and your rules and dictate to us! You are not better than us! You only make the rules because you were born into this power, just as my brother was born into his position. You don’t deserve it!”
He turned around, and hate burned in his eyes as he started toward me. “And you, you whore, you cunt, you’ve destroyed everything!”
I shrank back as he came toward me. I was trapped in the row, with nowhere to go as he advanced, still cursing, still calling me horrible names. Shrinking back as far as I could, I tried to put as much distance between us as possible, but he was closing in, chained hands outstretched to wrap around my neck.
Chapter Twenty–Two
In a flash Jasper was behind him, hand tight on his arm, as the guards sprang into action. Seth was pulled back, kicking and screaming and cursing. My whole body shook as I sat down. Annabelle wrapped her arms around me, helping to steady me. My heart was beating so fast, I thought for sure I was going to pass out.
Seth continued fighting his captors, gnashing his teeth and flailing his limbs. His screaming became incoherent, mostly shrieks of indignation. Even in his wolf form, I had never seen him look so savage. His eyes weren’t cold and calculating anymore; now they held a look of madness.
“I’ll get you for this!” he screamed at his brother. “I’ll get you! Mark my words, I’ll get you!”
As soon as the guards had him fully in their grasp, Jasper ran to me, enveloping me in his arms, pulling my head to his chest. I breathed in his comforting scent and let my body meld into his. I was safe. I was safe in his arms.
Jasper cradled my face in his hands and lifted my head so I was looking him in his gray–blue eyes. “Are you all right?” he asked urgently.
I swallowed and nodded. “Yes,” I said. My shaking had lessened, and I could breathe again. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fantastic,” Jasper said. A grin was spread across his face, and his eyes were alight with excitement. How on earth could he be happy at a time like this?
“What’s going on with you?” I asked him. “You look like a child who got his favorite toy on Christmas.”
“He broke,” Jasper whispered to me. “He snapped. Any of the elders who didn’t know him before, now they know that he’s completely bonkers. They won’t believe a thing he says from now on.”
I gazed at my husband. I was undecided how to feel about this. On the one hand, it was quite clever. Jasper holding his poise and being direct sent Seth off the deep end. On the other hand, Jasper had done exactly what he knew would work to antagonize his brother. It was a side of Jasper I had never seen before, the willingness to trick his loved ones.
Granted, I didn’t know how much love Jasper had left for Seth. Some, I imagined; he was still flesh and blood family. In light of the revelations of today, I couldn’t picture Seth held much of a place close to Jasper’s heart. Seth hadn’t admitted that he had poisoned Cecilia, but he hadn’t denied it either. Jasper’s heart must have broken when he realized that his only family was responsible for the deaths of everyone he had ever loved. I reached over and grasped Jasper’s hand, squeezing it tightly. Whether it was more for his benefit or mine, I don’t know, but it made me feel better. And based on the small smile Jasper gave me, it made him feel better as well.
From behind the bench, Benedict rubbed at his forehead. “Guards, take him away, please.”
Seth put up quite a fuss. It reminded me of the time that Annabelle and I had taken Daniel to swim in the lake. When it was time to leave, Daniel had planted himself on the ground, sobbing, until Annabelle had to drag him away kicking and screaming. That was exactly what was going on here. Seth was still flailing in the guard’s arms as they pulled him from the room.
Once the door shut behind them, I let out a breath that I hadn’t even realized I had been holding in. My whole body relaxed now that Seth was out of my sight. I leaned my head on Jasper’s shoulder, and he ran his thumb over my hand.
The courtroom was quiet. It seemed no one knew what to do now. The elders had probably never been in a situation quite like this one before. It would be easy enough to put some sort of muzzle on Seth, except that he was acting as his own defense lawyer and would have to be allowed to ask questions. The complexity of the situation made me dizzy. I hoped the elders would come up with a solution, but I was also thankful I wasn’t the one who had to put together this puzzle.
“Court is adjourned for the day, I suppose,” Benedict sighed. The expression on his face told me that he was either ready to bang his head on his desk or drown the day in a bottle of wine, and I don’t think even he was sure which he’d choose. I felt for him. This couldn’t be an easy job anyway, and Seth was just making it worse.
The elders in the jury box murmured amongst each other, frowns on their faces. This recess would set us back again, just as yesterday’s had. I was as anxious as the next person to move on and put this behind us. I was ready to go home to Wolf’s Peak, fall back into our routine, and prepare for Hazel and Adam’s wedding. Was that really so much to ask for?
Slowly, the rest of us rose to our feet, Jasper reaching out his hand to help me stand. There was whispering between us all, unsurprisingly, after the display we had just seen. We all filed out into the courtroom and sort of stood around in the lobby, unsure what to do next.
“Any plans for the day?” Annabelle asked us. “We have the whole afternoon free now.”
“I haven’t the slightest,” I admitted. I looked up at Jasper. “Perhaps we could visit the library?”
“I don’t see why not,” he said, smiling down at me. “Let’s go check on the little ones first, though, shall we?”
“I wish the weather was nicer,” Annabelle said as we walked up the stairs. “Stephen said the grounds are lovely when it’s warm out.”
“They really are. Very well–manicured. Of course, I prefer the forest. Tall trees, great coverage. Just as I like it,” Jasper said.
I shook my head. The knowledge that my husband was a werewolf had become normalized for me, for the most part, but every once in a while he would say something that threw me off guard a little.
We knocked on Ingrid’s door and she opened it, surprised. We’d only been gone perhaps an hour at most, and we had expected that we wouldn’t take a recess until lunchtime.
“Is everything all right?” she asked us.
“Seth had a meltdown,” I said as she passed Lowell to me. He smiled and gurgled, and I smiled back.
“A meltdown?”
“He completely lost it,” said Annabelle. Ingrid stepped aside so we could enter their room, which was a lovely navy blue color with matching pink accents. Annabelle stooped down a few feet away from Daniel, and he ran to greet her.
“Hi!” he proclaimed, and she sat down so he could show her his toy.
“What happened?” Ingrid asked, looking past us. Christoph had caught up and came over to embrace his wife.
“Do you remember when I told you Seth was unstable?” he asked her after he gave her a soft peck on the lips.
Ingrid twisted her face as she tried to remember. “You called it...megalomania, right?”
“That’s right. Well, he showed that in co
urt today by cursing out Jasper, Christine, and the elders.
Ingrid gasped. “That is bad, yes?”
Jasper almost chuckled at her innocence. Christoph had only been turned a few months ago, and all of this was still very new for him and his family. “It’s certainly not good.”
Ingrid straightened her back. “Well, good. I’m glad. He deserves whatever punishment he gets.” She ran her fingers over the scar on Christoph’s neck. Conor had been forced to turn him, otherwise risking Christoph’s death. With a wife and child at home, his was a life I wasn’t willing to lose. The bite had left a small, half–moon scar near his jugular.
Jasper and I brought Lowell back to my quarters to play with him a bit. I read him a book, even though he certainly didn’t understand. Just before lunch, Lowell began to get hungry. I sat in one of the chairs by the window, wrapped in a blanket to protect from the draft, and let him eat. Bridget had been thoughtful enough to pack my copy of Jane Eyre, and I thumbed through it to keep myself entertained while Lowell ate. Jasper set opposite me, wearing his glasses, reading through a Swedish newspaper.
“Do you understand all that?” I asked him.
“Jai,” he said, turning the page.
“How many languages do you speak?” Jasper had stacks of books in his library in foreign languages, but I had never thought to ask him how much he actually could understand.
“Six.”
“Six?” I asked, amazed.
“English, Gaelic, Latin, Swedish, Italian, and French. I can speak a bit of Spanish and Russian, but I understand it better than I can speak it.”
I gaped at him. “How?”
“The older languages, those were imperative for being able to read my family’s journals and history. France is right across the channel, and I’ve traveled there dozens of times. Swedish, of course, is helpful when I’m here visiting the elders. I grew up learning all of these languages. We had a private tutor who made sure that we could read and write fluently.
I shook my head. “That’s incredible. I wish I’d had half the schooling you had.”
He looked at me curiously. “You simply had a different kind of schooling, Christine. You assisted your father with his patients. You can do many medical procedures and have a much deeper understanding of medicine and biology than I do.”
I smiled. “I suppose,” I said, though I was still jealous of Jasper’s knowledge.
Lowell fell asleep after eating, and we quietly brought him back to Ingrid so she could watch him while we ate. Today, the dining hall was divided into several smaller tables instead of the longer one that had taken up most of the space last time. Jasper and I took a seat with Stephen and Annabelle while we ate, sipping at the wine and devouring the adorable little finger sandwiches that had been brought out to us.
“What a day,” Annabelle sighed.
I glanced at the clock. “It’s scarcely past noon.”
“Scary, isn’t it?” she asked. “I hope the rest of the day is a bit more low–key.”
Without the trial to attend for the rest of the day, I couldn’t see how it could be anything but. After we finished eating, Annabelle and I went back upstairs to check on the little ones. Everyone had gone down for a nap, Daniel and Alice curled up together on the floor and Lowell still asleep in the center of the bed. Ingrid was in the corner by the fire, reading a book. We poked our heads in and she gave us a smile and a wave, pointing at our sleeping babies. We gave her a quick nod, then snuck out before we accidentally woke them.
Annabelle retired to her room for a mid–afternoon nap. I was equally, if not more tired, but I hadn’t forgotten about the library waiting for me downstairs. I weaved my way back to the dining hall, where Jasper was still sitting with Stephen and now Peter and Dr. Brighton. I came and sat next to him, and he put his arms around me.
“What can I do for you, my darling?”
“I was hoping to see the library,” I confessed.
He grinned. “Of course. Gentlemen, would you like to join us?”
I thought for sure we’d get lost trying to find the amazing room, but Jasper knew this place intimately. He led us right there without a single wrong turn or moment of confusion. Meanwhile, I was still praying that someone would draw me a map.
The men sat down in the chairs in the center of the room, still discussing something that sounded political and utterly boring. While they chatted, I circled the perimeter of the room, marveling at the shelves of books before me. I ran my fingertips along the bindings, able to read only the ones in English. I wished I had Jasper’s gift of languages. How many more works of literature would be available to me!
The upstairs looked dark and slightly uninviting, so I stayed on the main level, where the light from the windows and the glow from the fireplace revealed the book titles. I finally found a book that looked interesting. There were no stories here, only non–fiction, but that was all right. I sat down by the fire with a book detailing werewolf history in the medieval era. It wasn’t an original, reading more like a textbook than a journal, but I was still enthralled as I read about the Vikings spreading their lycanthropic genes across the world. There was no solid evidence where werewolves had originated from, but the general consensus seemed to be that they were from the very area where this castle stood. That was done on purpose, surely. What better place to host the elders than their cradle of life?
It was deeply relaxing to sit in front of the fire with this book of history, even if the book itself was a bit loquacious and slow. A maid had even brought me a cup of tea for me to sip while I read. The fire and the tea warmed me both inside and out. I set the book down on my lap, leaning my head against the back of the chair. I stifled a yawn, feeling my eyelids grow heavy. In fact, I was ready to drift off when I heard a noise from somewhere in the castle.
It was a heavy bang. Wherever it came from, it must have been very loud for us to hear it in this room with the thick walls. Jasper’s head snapped up, turning to the door. All four of the men were on edge, backs stiff, hair on end.
The banging continued, followed by some crashing and shouting. I clutched the arms of my chair, not sure what could be happening, but convinced it wasn’t good. My book tumbled off my lap, but I didn’t move, my breathing shallow.
Jasper stood up from his chair. “I’ll be back,” he promised.
I wanted to cry out to him, to beg him not to leave me. He had no idea what he was walking into. This could be an ambush by some of Seth’s men. Watching my husband walk out that door could be the last time I ever saw him, and the thought crushed me. But I knew Jasper, and I knew he was doing what he felt he had to do. So I sat in my chair, petrified as the noises increased and shouting reverberated through the castle walls. It was almost worse once everything became silent. I still couldn’t breathe, waiting.
Finally, after an eternity, Jasper came back into the room. His clothes were tattered and he was breathing heavily, but he was alive and looked to be unharmed. I raced from my chair and threw my arms around him.
“Thank God you’re all right!” I cried. “What happened?”
Jasper’s lips were pressed into a tight line. He sighed.
“Seth tried to escape.”
Chapter Twenty–Three
I pulled away from him, stunned. “What?”
Jasper brushed a strand of hair away from my face. “It’s all right. He didn’t make it out.”
“What happened?” I asked him. “I thought we were safe here.”
He put his hand on my cheek. “We are, my love, we are. I promise.”
“How did he nearly escape?” Fear was pumping through my veins.
Jasper took my hand and led me into a seat near the others. He sat down next to me, and addressed us all. “The guard says that Seth had been pacing around the floor of his cell when he tumbled to the ground and began seizing. The guard rushed to his side to help him, and Seth attacked, trying to choke him. He threw him back against the wall and nearly knocked him out.”
“Almost. Another guard heard the commotion and rushed to see what was going on. He managed to pull Seth off the first guard, and together they got him subdued. The guards are now under orders not to enter his cell under any circumstances.”
I shook my head. “I can’t believe he took advantage of someone’s goodwill like that.”
Jasper, whose elbows were resting on his knees, looked up at me. “You’re really surprised?”
“I suppose not. I just have never met someone quite like him before.”
Jasper sighed. “There aren’t very many people like him, fortunately.”
I got up from my chair and sat down on his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck. I saw him glance at his comrades, and I was worried for a moment that he’d ask me to move since we were in public. He didn’t, though, and instead wrapped his arms around my waist and buried his head in my hair.
“I’m glad you’re all right,” I told him. “I was scared.”
“Well, I’m right here,” he promised.
“What are they going to do with Seth for tomorrow?” Stephen asked.
“For the trial?” Jasper looked at Stephen over my shoulder. “I’m not sure yet. No one has said anything. I don’t think they even know.”
I felt my fatigue coming back, and I leaned over and kissed Jasper on the cheek. “I think I’m going to take a brief nap,” I said. “I’ll see you later?”
He kissed my lips. “I’ll see you later, darling.”
The Wolf's Cub (The Wolf's Peak Saga Book 3) Page 17